Last week saw two extraordinary developments in Orange County jurisprudence. On Thursday, the Department of Justice announced it was opening an investigation into the Orange County District Attorney's office and sheriff's department to see if they broke any laws regarding the illegal use of jailhouse snitches to win cases. The following day, OC Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals issued a stern reprimand to Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, threatening to hold her in contempt if she doesn't turn over thousands of pages of secret logs he has requested. Hutchens insists she has done nothing wrong — but in a year that ended with a dramatic jailhouse escape by violent inmates and is ending with this, is it time for Hutchens to resign?
KCRW
